LAS VEGAS — Officials from the National Security Agency (NSA) and satellite internet provider Viasat provided new details on the headline-grabbing cyberattack on the company at the onset of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Mark Colaluca, vice president and chief information security officer at Viasat, spoke alongside Kristina Walter, chief of Defense Industrial Base (DIB) Cybersecurity at the NSA, at the Black Hat conference on Thursday.
The two outlined the details of the run-up to the attack, lessons learned from the incident and more.
The cyberattack last February left Viasat’s KA-SAT modems inoperable in Ukraine. The attack had several other downstream effects, causing the malfunction of 5,800 Enercon wind turbines in Germany and disruptions to thousands of organizations across Europe.
According to U.S. and European Union officials, the attack on Viasat was intended to degrade the ability of the Ukrainian government and military to communicate.
Colaluca said that Viasat’s KA-SAT network serves more than 100,000 customers located across Europe and the Middle East. The company offers both broadband and satellite connectivity but the attack, attributed to Russian hackers, targeted broadband customers.
Colaluca revealed during the talk that it was actually two separate attacks that disrupted the company’s operations.
“In some cases, it was very sophisticated and they had a deep understanding of how our network worked,” he said.
“In other cases, they took great advantage of the tools and capabilities that were in place to execute the attack without having to do much on their own. One of our biggest lessons learned is that the part of the attack that didn't require a ton of sophistication – with a little bit more hygiene and a few extra things – pro ..
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